How to Lose Weight

Step 7: Maintaining Your Weight

Step 7: Maintaining Your Weight.

After you have followed a strict diet and reached your goal weight, you want to maintain this weight. It's simple, to maintain your new weight you need to burn as much calories as you consume. Every time a day passes where you just couldn't resist eating more calories than you burn, fix it the next day. Burn the extra ones the day after. Keep track of everything you eat and the exercises you do. That will become sort of a way of life when you get used to it and discover its positive result.

Some tips from Men'sHealth for maintaining your lost weight:

"1. Exercise at least an hour a day, almost every day

2. Follow a low-fat, low-sugar, low-calorie diet

3. Eat more or less the same stuff all the time

4. Minimize TV watching

5. Eat breakfast

Find your new normal.

When you begin a weight-loss program, says Dr. Sciamanna, you're willing to make enormous, zero-to-60 changes. A drive-thru addict might quit cold turkey. A careless chowhound might start weighing his food and tracking his calorie intake religiously.

"But at a certain point you want your old life back," he says. "There's a huge fatigue that sets in. How long do you want to spend on that one problem?" You can't literally have your old life back, because that's how you gained so much weight in the first place. But you can create a "new normal" with these three practices. Of course, sometimes you feel ravenous even though you just finished lunch; in that case, some food ingredients could be sabotaging your waistline.

Weigh yourself regularly.

Sounds too simple, but Dr. Sciamanna's research confirms what we first learned from the National Weight Control Registry. People who weigh themselves most often and most consistently are best at catching and releasing new pounds before those interlopers acquire residency status.

Plan your meals.

You can maintain your weight with a low-fat, low-carb, or well-balanced diet; just pick one and stick with it. That takes planning. The Penn State team confirmed that people who successfully maintain their weight tend to eat the same things most of the time, but they vary what goes with these foods. A grilled-chicken salad will taste different if you use mixed greens with mustard vinaigrette instead of spinach with raspberry vinaigrette. Add chopped vegetables to the former and sliced fruit to the latter for even more variety. You're still having "a salad" for dinner. A standard meal that you can modify allows you to be consistent without being boring.

Make a list before you shop.

The "plan your meals" bit works only if you also write down everything you need before you shop. Again, it's common sense, but it's uncommonly used.

Focus on process, not outcome.

When you're losing weight, you think of an outcome and then find a process that takes you there. For weight maintenance, it helps to start with the process. Try these sustainable habits.

Drink a lot of water.

The water itself may or may not be important for weight control, but the practice of drinking it throughout the day serves as a gentle between-meals reminder.

Eat the same number of meals a day.

It doesn't matter if you have three, four, or six. You just can't skip a meal or planned snack. It disrupts your hunger cues and puts you at risk of eating stuff you'd typically avoid, or of overeating when you finally do eat.

Include fruits, vegetables, and/or lean protein in every meal.

A large body of research, including Dr. Sciamanna's, shows the importance of eating protein and fresh, fiber-rich foods among those who successfully manage their weight.

Follow a consistent exercise routine.

You don't have to crush it every time, but you do have to show up. Alwyn Cosgrove, C.S.C.S., owner of Results Fitness in Santa Clarita, California, suggests setting a monthly goal for workouts. Tell yourself you'll go 20 times and you'll force yourself to do four or five workouts a week.

Think like a winner.

The latest research from the Penn State team shows a major attitude adjustment among people who win at permanent weight loss.

Reward yourself.

Weight loss is about deprivation. Weight maintenance works best when you occasionally give in to temptation.

Remind yourself why you need to stay vigilant.

You may be thinner on the outside, but inside you still have billions of depleted fat cells longing to return to their days of greasy glory. It helps to keep mementos of your inflated past. A photo on the fridge should work.

But don't forget your accomplishment.

When you need a confidence boost, go to the mall to observe the well-fed fauna. Isn't it nice to know you're no longer a member of that herd?"

This is another tip from Uchospitals:

"Once the desired weight has been reached, the gradual addition of about 200 calories of healthy, low-fat food to daily intake may be attempted for one week to see if weight loss continues. If weight loss does continue, additional calories of healthy foods may be added to the daily diet until the right balance of calories to maintain the desired weight has been determined. It may take some time and record keeping to determine how adjusting food intake and exercise levels affect weight."